CRESTVIEW — The Okaloosa All-County Band will perform a public concert on Feb. 1 at the Mattie Kelley Arts Center.

The competition from throughout Okaloosa County was fierce, but in the end, 27 members of the Big Red Machine recently were selected for the honor.

“It’s a little higher than normal,” band director Jody Dunn said of the number of his performers accepted to the county band.

Big Red Machine members had to perform before a judging panel to be selected for the all-county band, Dunn said. They were competing against students in other county bands, including the Niceville High School Eagle Pride, which performed in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

“Those kids audition individually,” Dunn said. “They had to play 12 major scales in less than 2 minutes, they each had two exercises they had prepared, and then they had a sight-reading exercise they had to do.”

Equally pleased was local trumpet tutor Jeremy Cadle. Six of the Big Red Machine trumpeters accepted in the all-county band are from his studio. They earned the first three and the seventh, eighth and 10th chairs in the trumpet section.

“They only took 12 trumpets in all, and six of those are mine,” Cadle said proudly.